They all returned to Earth and everything seemed to go back to normal. They all talked to each other on the feed again, had a debate whether a guy should lie to a girl when she asks if she looks fat. The girls made it clear they should and the guys think that if she asks their opinion they should tell them. Quendy was having a party at the end of the week because her parents went out of town, this was the first time Titus would see Violet since they left the moon. They had some time to talk on the way to the party which was when Titus learned that Violet has never been to a party before because she’s homeschooled. Their hands touched and when they were driving she rested her arm behind his head and Titus could feel the warm hair from her arm on his neck. When they get to the party Link and Marty are playing a video game, which is real life moving and you are the only ones that see what’s going on because it’s in your feed. Violet goes over to talk to Calista and Titus chats with Quendy who asks Titus if he and Violet are going out and he replies that they are. That’s when she says that Calista says that Violet is stuck up so Titus chats Violet to make sure everything is okay. When he stops for a moment to look around he realizes that absolutely nothing has changed, they went back to exactly how they were before. It’s as if their brains were never invaded by the hacker.
Titus went upstairs after the party watched the movie and the guys were up there doing the “mal” or a trip. Titus didn’t want to do it because he didn’t think Violet was okay with it. When he came down him and Violet went outside to talk where she told him that something was wrong with her feed and they think that it’ll stable out but it hasn’t yet. She said that they didn’t know what it was but they were trying to make adjustments. Titus was freaked out but hid what he was thinking from her and he wrapped his arms around her and felt like he was protecting her already. The stood there for awhile looking at each other and kissed and just enjoyed the synthetic breeze.
That night Titus had a dream. He dreamt that there was a site where you could get all of these games for free, all of them, anything for free. So with this he downloaded checkers and when he did someone was nudging his feed, when he asked who they were they asked if he was one of the victims of the hacking and he replied yes. They said they were the police and just doing some checking, when he said they weren’t the police he asked who they really were. They just gave him free games and said not to worry. He didn’t remember this for awhile but he did know that when he woke up he couldn’t find any of the games, or the lizard or gloves.
Titus and Violet meet at the mall after Violet asks if he wants to hear her new experiment. They go to the mall and go to all of the stores and ask to see all of these weird things but don’t buy anything. Violet explains that she wants to become invisible to the feed, she wants them to not know how to advertise to her so they just don’t. He drops her off at the feed doctor’s office pinching her elbows standing there until Titus drives off. Titus chatter her that night and he could tell that she was crying but she didn’t answer why instead just saying she wished he was there. Then she showed him how her feed was going crazy because of everything they looked at at the mall. Titus loved spending time with Violet, although she was smarter she still hadn’t done a lot of the things that he had because of how she grew up. It seemed that everything they did together was something new and they did it hand in hand.
Sometimes Titus did worry that he wasn’t as smart as Violet though. She mentioned how the country wasn’t actually a democracy it was a republic. Titus suggested that they just have everyone vote from their feed, to which she responded that only a certain percent of people have the feed in the United States. At another conversation Violet said that everyone who grew up with the feed were stupid and dumb until she realized that Titus had always had the feed and she tried to continually apologize but Titus was visibly hurt by it. When he got home that night his mother could tell something was wrong. The next day he got home from SchoolTM where he didn’t do good on an exam. Violet said she couldn’t talk that day which was okay with him because you could still tell he was hurt. That’s when his parents tried to make him feel better again. They told him of how he got his looks, from a movie star that didn’t end up getting any big rolls. By the end of the conversation they told him he was getting his own car, and all of a sudden he didn’t feel so dumb anymore.
Titus and his father picked up Violet at the mall on the way to go get a new upcar. When they got there and were test driving them Violet kept trying to convince Titus to get something other than the upcar, “resist the feed” she would say, but he didn’t. There was the Dodge Gryphon which showed Titus a picture of a party with people in bikinis in his car and there was the Swarp showed him pictures of him and Violet driving alone along a mountain. Violet asked if this was a gift, Titus said that it was more like a reward for having to go to court and give evidence. Violet looked at him confused and finally told him that the man was dead, the police had beat him to death. He died the day after the club from the beating to the head. Titus bought the Dodge. That night his family and Violet had dinner together. His mother asked if Titus was going to take Violet out in the new car and they said they were going to go on a walk tomorrow either to Jefferson Park or beef county. Titus’ father said it would have to be beef county because they got rid of Jefferson Park to make an air factory which Violet was upset with because trees make air and Titus’ father and Violet got into it for awhile. When dinner was done Violet couldn’t get up yet because her foot was frozen, as in it couldn’t move. She explained it had happened a few times since the hack. When she got up Titus took her to the mall parking lot to drop her off with her father, he fell asleep that night looking up things on the feed about how people could go to sleep together and wake up together.
Titus picked up Violet at her house and met her father. He believes that the language is dying so he uses big words and a lot of hidden meaning so that no one can simplify what he’s saying. He talks about how and where Violet meets most of her boys, though she doesn’t bring many home. They spent the day in the country and loved it. By the end of the day Violet asked how he wanted to die and he said with sense overload, ending by asking if she would be the one to pull the plug. It took her awhile and then she got very happy and said if he wanted her to she would. He dropped her off and when he got home he could sense his whole family around him. His brother was asleep with the feed saying things to him and his parents were going mal. That night someone nudged Titus’ dreams again and he saw images that were frightening and scary. He woke up to Violet asking if he had been in her head. He said no so she called tech support which ended up being an automated voice who tried to help her make decisions on buying things. She had to cuss at the automated voice to get her to leave her alone. They said goodnight after Violet got off with tech support and when Titus fell asleep he had much better dreams.
There was a coke promotion going on that if you talk about how amazing coke was 1,000 times you got a case of coke. Titus’ friends got together to talk about coke and try to get a lifetime supply of it. Violet said something that “got them knocked points” and was quiet for the rest of the night until the group wanted to go to a store and get coke. That’s when Calista and Loga were talking about their riot clothes while walking to the upcars and Violet asked what happened in a certain riot but the girls didn’t know and looked at her weird because she used “big words that no one understood.” At this point Violet wanted to go home because all of Titus’ friends thought she was weird. When they were driving they got in a fight where it finally came out that something was wrong with Violet. She explained that because her feed was put in later than others’ it’s more susceptible to malfunctioning and because the feed is connected to everything it could affect anything, her heart, lungs, limbic system, entire brain really it could even be fatal. After revealing this she said she could go back now but Titus didn’t want to and they went elsewhere. Violet stayed for dinner that night after they sat at Titus’ house to talk. She made him realize that she didn’t have much time, that it could be anytime.
One morning Titus goes to school and Loga has gotten a large fake lesion implanted on the back of her neck. Titus chats Violet to tell her about it and she gets a kick out of it. It comes up how Link is an exact clone of Abraham Lincoln which is why he isn’t as good looking as all of the other guys. Titus asks if Violet wants to go to a party with them on Friday and after some convincing she says yes.
At the party everyone seemed to be having a good time until Calista came and everything went quiet. She was cut from head to toe trying to outdo Loga. Titus takes Violet up to the attic and talks to her about when they were younger they would play sardines and all of the good friends would go up there and laugh at those who didn’t know about the secret place. Then they talked about walking in the hallway and that exact moment when you realized you’re alone although you’re not alone, you’re surrounded by people. Then they found old pictures, black and white with no smiles, of Link’s relatives from a long time ago. They went downstairs and the group was playing spin the bottle so they sat down to join, though Titus could tell that Violet didn’t want to play. When Marty got Violet she went crazy yelling about how everyone had become the feed they didn’t have the feed in them, they are the feed. They’re all food raised to be animals for the feed, she yelled that there were starving people in the world and they were there being the feed. This happened right before her body failed and she fell to the ground and Titus was holding her and her body went limp, though her heart was beating she couldn’t move. When Titus went with the women in the ambulance the feed was whispering to him about malpractice and suing.
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